Saturday evening via Twitter, Moraes posted
a page of a UFC bout agreement, indicating that he had signed
on to square off with Rivera at UFC on Fox 28, scheduled for Feb.
24 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. Naturally, a provocative
caption went with it.

“Here you go @JimmieRivera135 I signed my bout
agreement.@ufc on fox. I also agreed to fight you on march 3rd
choose what day you want me to beat your ass B-I-T-C-H,” Moraes'
tweet read.

The contention between the pair of 135-pound contenders has been
brewing for some time. Ramsey, N.J.’s Rivera is a product of New
York City’s Team Tiger Schulmann, a staple of tri-state area MMA in
Northeastern United Stated. Brazil’s Moraes trains under coaches
Mark Henry and UFC veteran Ricardo
Almeida in New Jersey.

Moraes and Rivera have gone back-and-forth with public callouts
over the last several months, bringing their animosity to a more
public stage in the buildup to UFC 219 on Dec. 30. During fight
week, Rivera’s slated opponent John
Lineker pulled out due to a wisdom tooth infection; “El Terror”
took to social media to repeatedly claim that he had offered and
accepted to face Moraes at both 138 and 140 pounds, but the
Brazilian had declined both contracted weights.

The former
World Series of Fighting bantamweight kingpin, Moraes lost his
much-anticipated UFC debut in June, dropping a split decision to
fellow Brazilian Raphael
Assuncao. However, the 29-year-old has quickly rebounded,
taking a Nov. 11 split decision over John Dodson
before knocking out Aljamain
Sterling on Dec. 9. Rivera, 29, has ripped off 20 consecutive
victories dating back to February 2009, last defeating savvy
striker Thomas
Almeida at UFC on Fox 25 in July.

Rivera responded to Moraes’ social media callout via
a statement to BloodyElbow on Saturday: “Monday I will be
making [an] official statement on everything in the past weeks. The
last time my manager spoke to [UFC Senior Vice President
of Talent Relations] Sean [Shelby] it was about the
possibility of fighting Cody
[Garbrandt], since he says he is healthy and ready to
fight.”

Rivera is scheduled to appear Monday on “The MMA Hour” with Ariel
Helwani to discuss his immediate future.